The prevailing sentiment suggests that the Montenegrin water polo players should feel frustrated, yet Croatian coach Ivica Tucak put on a show of his own following his team’s loss to the “sharks” (15:13) in their final group stage match of the European Championship.

The former coach of Jadran from Herceg Novi commented on Vlad Popadić’s exclusion, which occurred two minutes and 13 seconds before the match ended when he struck Matijas Biljaka and received a “brutality” penalty—this incident unfolded while the scoreboard read 10:10.

“I cannot fathom how people fail to see this, with two referees officiating, and only after my dramatic intervention do they finally notice an obvious hit to the head. The opposing player was immediately sent off within five seconds. It’s on us, yet if that was the entirety of the situation, then so be it,” Tucak remarked.

He chose not to comment on the disallowed goal by Đur Radović.

“I regret not securing those two points, as it would have made our path a bit smoother. We have four days off ahead and we’re in the quarterfinals, which was our primary objective. Nevertheless, it stings; we had control of the match with that ‘brutality’ and several opportunities…”, Tucak reflected.

News